The day before the Australian Professional Photography Awards I had an idea. The whole marriage equality vote / survey was all over the news and to be honest the stories were not all that good. Hearing of the abuse that same sex families and couples were getting online and in person was totally stupid in my eyes and in the eyes of the vast majority of the people i’d spoken to.
It got me thinking of what I could do to help, is there something that I can do that can show the support I feel towards equality for all love. I’ve got some great friends and clients who this law directly effects, one of my favourite weddings wasn’t actually a wedding as Adrian and Govind couldn’t be officially married.
So a group photo was organised, a message on Facebook saw so much support that my initial thought of 20 or so photographers in support grew to this photo of well of 80 photographers. We see love first hand at wedding and shooting families, we know that love is love and we want to see the laws changed.
For a wedding to be legal in Australia the celebrant/minister must say the legally binding words called “The Monitum”. These words establish that marriage, here in Australia, is the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life.
Most weddings I shoot now have an additional line something like “However, while Bride and Groom accept the previous statement as required by law, they truly believe that marriage is a human right, and should be made available as a choice for all loving and consenting adult couples regardless of their gender.”
I’m totally for a vote to have these laws overturned. Families deserve to be families. All adults who want to marry the one they love should be able to.
Proud of my Australian Photography Family who jumped on the idea and get involved, thanks to Bruce from Epson for printing the YES for us and to the guy from Olympus (who’s name has escaped me! for taking the shot!)
